October 10, 2007 -- Rider Dance Ensemble Presents Dances for Africa

LAWRENCEVILLE -- Rider University’s Dance Ensemble and dancers from American Repertory Ballet (ARB) will present benefit performances on Thursday, October 11 and Friday, October 12, to raise money for African orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS.

The performances, titled, “An Apple’s Corps,” are a part of the Dance Ensemble’s and ARB's Kristin Scott's Dances for Africa series. Each performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. in The Spitz, the studio theater of the Fine Arts Center on the Lawrenceville campus.

Scott is the catalyst for the concert series. She spent six weeks working in an orphanage in Kenya last summer, and was looking for ways to continue to help the children. She joined forces with Dr. Kim Chandler Vaccaro, director of the Rider University/Princeton Ballet School Dance Program, to raise both awareness about the children’s plights, and to raise money to help alleviate their impoverished conditions. Proceeds will benefit the Oncata Rongai Christian Women's Works of Charity Orphanage. Tickets for the performances are $5 per person.

Rider student senior dancers Jordan Owen and Crista Vaccarello have assembled a cast of 29 Rider dancers. “The dancers are so excited about helping those in great need and performing with dancers from American Repertory Ballet said Vaccaro. "I am so proud they will be using their talents and energy to benefit someone less fortunate."

Choreographers for “An Apple’s Corps” include Rider alumna Jennifer Gladney ’06, professional choreographer and dancer Ed Urwin and the Princeton Ballet’s Laney Engelhard. Currently, there are more than 50 dance majors and minors in Rider’s Dance/Princeton Ballet School Dance Program. For more information about the performances, or Rider’s Dance Program, call 609- 896-5168 or 609-896-7706.